kawaiiNihongo - Learn Japanese

Name: kawaiiNihongo - Learn Japanese
Rating: 4.7 (1033 reviews)
Author: Jan Dittmer

By: Jan Dittmer

Learn Kana, Kanji and Grammar!

Features & Capabilities

kawaiiNihongo - Learn Japanese is a Chrome extension that helps English speakers learn Japanese for free. It trains you to read and write Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji, and JLPT N5 grammar and vocabulary using over 450 illustrated flashcards, native-speaker audio, and guided lessons for listening and writing.

Its interactive games—Kana-Memory, Nihongo Dash, and Foxes vs Gangsters—make practice fun while you build recognition and recall. You can customize flashcards with artist-designed layouts, follow a Story with Riko, Yuji, and Aoi, and use offline mode after the initial download. The extension is free to use, with an optional KN Gakusei subscription to remove ads and unlock extra features. For support and policy, links are provided in the app.

User Growth & Download Statistics

App Education Games

By:

Jan Dittmer

Rating:

4.70

(1,033)

Version:

4.0.9 Last updated: 2025-01-22

Version code:

871943756

Creation date:

2016-12-02

Compatible devices:

Size:

203.16MB

URLs:

Website ,Privacy policy

Full description:

Source:

Apple Apps Store

Data ingested on:

2026-06-06

Compare stats and ranking:

Ranking

# 57,205 ▼ 43

Other platforms

kawaiiNihongo: Learn Japanese (v4.0.14)

1,946,843 4.53

(33,929)

For Developers

Monetize with App Pass Boost with Extension Booster

Contact the developer

Chrome-Stats does not own this Apple app. Please use these information below to contact the Apple app developer.

Developed by:

Jan Dittmer

Apple Apps Store

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kawaiinihongo-learn-japanese/id1015333181

Website:

https://kawaiinihongo.de/

User Reviews

Overall, users praise kawaiiNihongo for its cute, engaging approach and solid beginner content with kana/kanji and audio-visual support. The main drawbacks are stability issues and mixed quality in grammar instruction and input/translation. Despite bugs, many find it a strong pocket-style learning tool, especially with mini-games and a clear progression. Some users deem the subscription worthwhile for more chapters and features.

Pros

Cute and engaging design that makes learning Japanese enjoyable.
Strong content for kana/kanji and grammar, with voice audio and pictures to aid memorization.
Textbook-like structure with a clear learning path and solid practice.
Good beginner-friendly introduction and a pocket-school feel that supports regular study.
Mini-games and rewards help reinforce memory and keep practice engaging.

Cons

Frequent bugs and stability problems (crashes, loading issues, chat outages) across devices and updates.
Audio/voice features are unreliable or non-functional at times (sound issues, poor speech recognition).
Grammar explanations and content quality gaps (not enough grammar explanation; some material feels robotic or incomplete).
Kanji input limitations (inability to insert kanji in some questions; need a Japanese keyboard for typing).
Occasional translation or usage inconsistencies (casual vs polite forms; overall translation quality issues).

Recent reviews

There are free resources out there that are much more helpful. I have 2 main complaints about this app. First, there is absolutely no point in playing an audio prompt then asking how to write that in romaji. That’s literally just English. Second, on the questions where you need to type your answer, you type using the English keyboard and the app automatically converts it to hiragana. But then it marks it incorrect because you didn’t use kanji. But the app doesn’t give you a way to insert the kanji. You need to download the Japanese keyboard onto your phone from the Settings app in order to type kanji (granted, you should do that anyway if you’re learning Japanese). But even then, these beginner level questions are requiring you to have already learned a lot of kanji.

by Gi*****, 2026-04-26

By far the best language learning app we have ever played. Cute, and very thorough. Good pacing and retention is also really good. Well worth turning off the ads for. Only complaint is I’d like another chapter of the story. It’s a great motivator, but I ran out and would really like the author to post more!

by Ra*****, 2026-04-17

DO NOT SPEND THE MONEY!! It does not actually explain grammar or anything. And if you ask questions it shuts off the reporting feature. It makes you figure things out. Other features like the voice recognition do not work well at all.